1/8/09

Of all the Op-Ed articles about Omar Abdullah in the Indian media in which featherbrained journalists seem to be suffering from some sort of mindless infatuation with Omar Abdullah, Barkha Dutt's opinion piece in the fundamentalist Indian newspaper, The Hindustan Times, cracked me up the most.

In order to save you folks from the agony of reading through her trite write-up, which is bereft of any logic, and laden with half baked assumptions, I will try to sum up the opinion piece in one sentence. She feels that Kashmiri people have all along been cherishing the thought of participating in these elections (which, she adds for emphasis, were the most important in 50 years!); that separatism is a thing of the past; and Omar Abdullah is a reincarnated hindu god in her eyes, who has been prophesized about in ancient Indian manuscripts. (click here to read her column, if you must, but dont blame me for not warning you!)

To appease her new god in Omar Abdullah, she even goes as far as to conjure up imaginary bloggers out of thin air to make her point! She claims that young separatist bloggers were all praise for Omar Abdullah, and even have promised to give up separatism and replace their blog background images with current pictures of a shirtless Omar flexing his muscles (similar to the pictures of Salmaan Khan found pasted on the walls of tea-stalls and dhabas); all this because Omar Abdullah will be the "best administrator ever"(emphasis on "ever" just like young people speak) (read the discussion of real-world separatist bloggers here)

When my fellow blogger from the Kashmir Forum queried about this magical act of her's in materialiazing "young separatist bloggers" out of thin air, Ms Barkha Dutt replied to him by email and claimed that her new god, His Holiness Omar Abdullah, had given her authority to re-invent the definition of the word "blogger". Apparently, in her dictionary, a person could be considered a blogger even if they simply post a comment on someone's facebook page! How silly of us and the rest of the world to think that to be considered a blogger, one would have to have a real-world blog address.

25 comments:

My dear Koshur, I pity how blissfully wrong you are. Nevertheless it happens when one keeps changing colours like a chamelion, you lose track of your own views and ideas and forget when you said what while you were busy in camouflaging the readers. When you were all praise for Omar Abdullah, those were not the posts when omar was writing his blog as you have wrongly mentioned in your comment above. He had already quit blogging by then.

I am copying here your own comments from your blog post dated 11.08.2008,(please refer back for confirmation) where you wrote, "The reason I chose to discuss Omar is that it appears fanatics have succeeded in silencing him by making him quit blogging (his blog)".

In the same blog you go on to register your opinion clear and loud about Omar by writing, "I will be honest enough to confess that even though I have been following Omar's career for the past decade, up until recently, I was convinced that he is just another opportunistic Indian politician; ......What changed my perception of Omar was his blog, (and later on his interviews and speeches). But out of all, his blog left a lasting impression because I believe that the way one writes speaks volumes about a person and is a reflection of the person's character and convictions".

Your belief is too naive, ill-concieved and insane dear Kosur. Just because a leader has good hold over some language does not make him legitimate and does not overshadow his wrong-doings in the past. You went on to write in the same post, "I am unable to point to another contemporary leader in Kashmir who would match Omar's calibre. Omar is a thorough gentleman. I am not a psychophant or someone seeking a mandate!"

Dear Kosur, your desperation to resort to Omar bashing right from the day tickets were distributed by NC makes me strongly believe that you were seeking a mandate from Omar in the recent elections.Otherwise why should your vast blog be scaled and reduced down to petty one point agenda of omar bashing.You were the one who advocated voting in favour of independents thus lending legitimacy to the farcical electioneering of India in J&K.

Your praises for omar in the above-mentioned blog did not stop at that. You went on to write, "I am also not exxagerating when I say that the wealth of information through his posts and from comments from his readers is unmatched". Now my question to you is, at that time when Omar had already quit blogging you didn't call him a coward or whatever, on the contrary you praised him like a true sycophant. Then what made you resort to mud slinging against him on the mere ground that he has quit blogging.

In another post made by you on November 28th, 2008 you wrote, "Of all the politicians in Kashmir, Omar Abdullah scares me the most. Not because he has converted to Hinduism and went to Haridwar to seek the blessings of his Godfather and Guru "Shri" Dayanand Pandey, who incidentally has been implicated in bombings in malegaon.....What scares me most is his duplicity and lack of candor". NOw you say that you have changed your opinion about Omar only after conducting thorough research of your own. So you want to make us believe that you conducted indepth research that made you have a diagonally opposite viewpoint about Omar abdullah just within a short span of three months between your previous post of 11.08.2008 to the one dated 28.11.2008. Till 11/8 you were of the opinion that omar is yet another opportunistic Indian politician. Then his blog made you change your mindset about him. You started considering him a thorough gentleman with an unmatched calibre. Then suddenly when Omar quits blogging, you start castigating him for being a coward, for marrying a hindu girl, for not circumsizing his sons etc etc.

The mute question remains that Omar was married to a hindu girl way back in 1994 when he had not even started blogging, his sons were uncircumsized (if we are to believe your words) even before he started blogging. Nothing of that nature changed when he started blogging or when he subesqently quit. Then what made you castigate him for these things now. Why he was a thorough gentleman and not a converted hindu then? When you called him wise and sane politician of the state, that time he had already joined hands with BJP and had been a party to Gujrat carnage of thousands of innocent muslims. He continued to be an Indian puppet throughout when you changed your viewpoint about him from he being opportunistic to sane & wise to coward etc etc. It hardly needed any research to decide what politicians like Omar Abdullah or Mehbooba Mufti are. Even a small kid on the streets of Srinagar will tell you what they are.....bloody Indian agents and traitors of Kashmir cause. Did you really need to conduct any research for that, dear Koshur. Come on, you need to answer these questions. Because these questions are smacking of your nasty intentions. These questions are sufficient enough to expose you and bring out your real self into limelight.

You know what I was a big fan of your blog and your writing prowess till recent times. But my whole perception about you changed the moment you started advocating voting in favour of independents. I instantly realised that like Tanveer Sadiq you are an Indian agent (politician) in blogger's disguise. You actually seem to have been begging for a mandate from Omar Abdullah and when you didnt succeed in getting the same, you reduced the aim of your blog solely to omar bashing.

Lastly I request bloggers like you and Tanvir to stop fooling Kashmiris, stop cheating us, show us your real face, stop camouflaging, stop disguising, have courage to show up your real self, state what you truly believe and display your real loyalties. Tell us what you are?

@Kashmir crisisThankyou for the detalied comment.I am quite amused you took time to read all those posts to build your argument; which still is flawed nonetheless. I will take time to answer each and every single one of your points , but I am hard pressed for time at the moment but will happen soon.

here are the first thoughts that come to my head after reading your diatribe.

Either...

-you are an IB agent trying to determine my identity -You are a hardcore Omar Abdullah supporter trying to discredit all his opposition.-very remote chance you are just an ordinary reader that you claim to be.

what an escape route you have found dear Koshur by effortlessly labelling me as IB agent and hardcore Omar Abdullah supporter at the same time. To hell with IB, to hell with Omar, I care a fig about both of them. For your kind information I wish to tell you that I am a common Kashmiri whose two brothers were martyred ruthlessly by Indian occupation forces and who can't bear any sell out by people like you advocating elections/voting under Indian rule. You rubbished my post as flawed without pointing out the purported flaws under the garb of paucity of time. I always take time to build my argument on genuine grounds. To any common Kashmiri's knowledge Abdullah clan as a whole (Omar Abdullah included)have been tyrrants, traitors, sellers of this hapless nation's fortunes, puppets of New Delhi in Kashmir, non-religious descendents of Sheikh Abdullah, a blot on the face of Kashmir to say the least. And they were so from the very outset. This didn't change either in August or in November 2008 or in January 2009. Then what made you drift from opinion to opinion about Omar abdullah. Till August, 2008 you considered him opportunistic Indian agent, therafter you labelled him as a thorough gentleman with unmatched credentials and back in NOvember, 2008 you called him a coward. Only a dirty Politicain can change stances so conveniently and that is what my dilemma is about. In search of answers for these questions, I made the previous post and like a conventional politician you've counter-attacked by labelling me whatever came to you mind. Only those who are ready to sell their conscience for a few morsels like you and Tanveer Sadiq can try to discredit any opposition to Abdullahs for they are the people who sold our land to killers (read Indian occupational forces). I am least bothered what you think or say about me. I just want to expose your real face and your true loyalities. Unless you answer my questions, you shall be counted among one of those traitors ready to sell their conscience in exchange for a mandate.

The people of Swat are the neighbors and cousins of Kashmiris. These people are facing an unending nightmare for several months. I would like to share this letter with you, so that you can pass it around to your Kashmiri friends and let them be aware of their plight and argue for their justice. Please hold the inhabitants of the Swat valley in your thoughts, along with the innocent victims of Gaza.

The main town of Swat, Mingora, has now virtually fallen to the militants. The police are escorted by army officials and come out from their ‘hide-outs’ only for a couple of hours. One of the busiest squares, Grain chowk, was renamed by the shopkeepers as ‘Khooni chowk’ because when they come to their shops in the morning on each day they find four or five dead bodies hung over the poles or the trees. They see dead bodies scattered along the foot path in the morning. The bodies are usually headless. The practice goes thus with an average of four deaths daily in the square. Similarly on each morning there are found bodies with their throats slit in Qambar, Kabal, Matta, Khawza Khela and Charbagh. This practice has been going on for weeks; and unfortunately does not seem to stop.

Jan 15 is the deadline set by the militants to close all schools, especially those of girls. As the deadline approaches people are getting more and more terrified. The government’s writ is all but absent. Nazims have been killed, women are not allowed to visit bazaars (which are deserted), NGOs have stopped working and children play a ‘Fauji Taliban’ game. The people live a miserable life in the cold. Most bridges have been damaged and beyond the main town phones have been dead for months. Most people live in darkness at night because the fighting has badly affected the power infrastructure as well.

Curfew is imposed constraining the people inside for days on end. And security forces personnel sometimes fire indiscriminately. The residents can do nothing – they cannot protest against the high-handedness of the military or stand up to the militants. The Taliban gain from strength to strength, partly aided by the use of FM radio. Various checkposts set up by the security forces seem to be no little use. Scores of militants entered Kalam last week in spite of six checkposts set up from from Bagh Dahri to Bahrain. It is quite clear that for now the victors in the war are the Taliban – and the losers the people of Swat.

But who cares about that in the rest of the country. The government seems too busy dealing with the aftermath of the Mumbai carnage. That said, the predicament of the people of Swat is worse than even of the people of Gaza. In Gaza the enemy is well known but in Swat the people know not who the enemy is and whom to hold responsible.

The civil society of any country is regarded as a great force to mobilize the general public against the violation of civil rights and liberty. It is considered as a bulwark against the violation of human rights. It is deemed as the upholder of people’s rights where the state fails to deliver. Its mettle was tested in the lawyers’ movement but we in Swat wonder why it is silent now? We hear no voice raise against the atrocities committed in Swat. No civil society organization has its voice against the plight of the women and children in Swat. We have not seen a single demonstration in the big cities against the monster of militancy in Swat, or in FATA for that matter. The media also seems apathetic about the plight. The print media does well to some extent but their scope is limited.

The people of Swat ask you to come out on their behalf and mobilize the general public against the war tearing the valley. We implore you to come out of your drawing rooms and stage protests so that the government does something about our plight.

@Kashmir crisisI will for sure defend my integrity and counter each and every point with a befitting reply. However, i write from my phone so until I get home, there is not much I can elaborate.regards

@KoshurI shall be eagerly awaiting your befitting reply to see if it fits into the actual scheme of things.By the way I am no alien to your blog. My previous blog that was hacked by someone (Kashmir on Boil) is still listed on your blog page. I had once commented on your blog itself that someone is trying to hack my blog who ultimately succeeded in doing so. Surely he must be from the saffron camp as is evident from the title of my hacked blog. I had to change the name of my blog which is now Kashmircrisis and can be viewed at http://www.kashmircrisis.blogspot.comHope after going through my blog posts you will get an idea what I stand for.

-I praised Omar after reading his views on his blog. He seemed straightforward at the time and willing to listen to his opponents by posting their views on his blog. At the time, Omar had the courage to speak his mind and listen to his opponents. This is similar to me praising Tanvir Sadiq at this time for having the courage for being different from the pack and making his views known. 99% of the Kashmiri bloggers are pro-freedom, being Tanvir Sadiq would require a lot of courage to speak his un-popular views freely. It is that courage that I respect in Tanvir Sadiq, and USED to like in Omar Abdullah.

-You point out that I praised Omar after he stopped blogging. Timing is irrelevant. Maybe it was the same day I went to his blog and realized he had stopped. Praising an adversary for his courage is not psychophancy. Also, calling it as it is now is not mudslinging. In hindsight, omar showed poor judgement in quitting his blog. At that very moment I wrote what I felt was accurate.

-I will not discuss omar's family anymore, I have already acknowledged my poor judgement when I did so before in my earlier posts.

-the wealth of information on omar's blog was indeed priceless. Altogether there were about a thousand posts from people having varied political views raning from pro-pakistan, pro-independence as well as pro-autonomy and pro-india. why would you have an objection to me praising that?

-you contend that i was out there seeking a mandate from Omar! this view is so laughable that i am hard pressed for words to respond to this bizzare theory. For one, how would my 'psychophancy' on an anonymous blog, with an anonymous name have any bearing on omar's decision on giving me a mandate?

-you list the dates that I praised omar for his blog and then when i started the mudslinging. But then conveniently skip through the posts where i have written about the amarnath agitations, my visit to the villages where conversions are taking place or the fact that omar starting talking about 'indian machinations'. I pointed out that it was a 'typical' politician about face that omar is talking about india when he is an MP. These events had a profound impact on my view of the Kashmir issue and i have mentioned many times that changing my views makes me a pragmatist and not a flip-flopper. I am open to learning and so should every logical person.

-you mention that small kids in kashmir will be able to tell me about the abdullah family treachory in kashmir. To that i have to say that i am not a small kid. I refuse to be indoctrinated by popular slogans.

-omar abdullah was a nobody until recently. I had better topics to write about earlier and that is why there are no posts agaisnt him since i started my blog.

-your writings sadly give me the impression that you want the status quo in kashmir to last for ever. we have to challenge the facts being forced down our throats by being pro-active. voting for independent candidates would have changed the rules of the game. Any one with an open mind can see through what a brilliant strategy this would have been for the separatists. And only people who like to shout others down can oppose this.

-in your latest posts you seem to reveal your true mindset. By calling Tanvir Sadiq a failure, you seem to relish the fact that his is a minority voice on the net. I having said it before and i will say it now, I respect Tanvir's courage to speak his mind on his blog. Even though I absolutely and totally disagree with his political views, I salute him for having the courage to bring forth his views unlike all the rest of us who are using pseudo names and anonymous posts.

finally i would like to add that your last few posts on Tanvir sadiq's blog really opened my eyes. sometimes i really get worried that what if we finally were independent and people with similar mindset such as yours are in a position of power. what would the fate of minorities and pro-indian populace be? would you similarly curtail their freedom and ostracize them? this scenario has to change and i hope i am wrong. I will be the first to voice my opposition in that case.

@tanvir sadiqI have said that i respect your courage to speak your unpopular views on the internet. But that doesnt mean that i will let you go easily or that i will not be harshly critical of you and try to convince you to switch sided and join the separatist camp.

Here is the dilemma though. If you should make the informed decision of joining the separatist camp, people like kashmir crisis will be shouting from the rooftops that you are a turncoat, and opportunist, and a chameleon. Therefore, who is doing more disservice to the movement? It is sadly people such as kashmir crisis. It is because of people such as him that the freedom movementt in kashmir is stagnated. we need fresh ideas, and an open mind.

readers of your blog will liek to knwo that my online interaction with Tanvir sadiq began three years ago when i read his article in greater kashmir. What began with me writing a scathing email to him using adjectives not very different than what i has used for omar, or for that matter what 'kashmir crisis' used to describe him currently - i only used worse. surprisingly, his reply to me was measured and very polite, which thus earned him my respect. I have no qualms in acknowledging that there are knowledgeable and sound minds on both sides of the political spectrum in kashmir. what we are having here is an interaction of ideas and coming to know each other.

if we leave it to people such as 'kashmir crisis' we would sadly keep the cycle of violence, mistrust, and suspicion going for ever. we need a medium for making our views known without being called names or being shouted down.The internet and blogs are such a medium. I am guilty of calling names when it comes ot omar abdullah for sure, but i acknowlegde my mistakes and move on.

with this long-winded post, I would like to add that please do not stop blogging Mr Tanvir; your pro autonomy, and pro-indian political views are unpopular, misguided and speaking plainly - wrong. I do not agree with your views but I will stand by you and fight for your right to speak about them.

You seem to have spared no efforts in painting a hardliner image of mine. You seem to be working on the premise of "offence is the best defence" and that is why you have made an unsuccessful attempt to put me on defensive by levelling all sorts of baseless counter-allegations against me. Though initially I strongly felt like answering back your rebuttal point by point with strong and genuine justification, subesequently I didn't deem it necessary to engage in sequential excoriation or to explain my position on those charges owing to their impudence.

I am however happy that this discussion has made you remorseful enough to censor your own comments in your earlier posts. At the same time I do appreciate your patience and endurance to post all my comments verbatim. That is one silver lining which makes me think twice about your integrity. I have very clear and solid answers in my mind to almost all the comments of your rebuttal but since that will only elongate further the spree of allegations and counter-allegations, I wish to restrict myself to only one important issue that clearly reflects contradictions in your claims.

More than by your act of Omar bashing in almost every blog post, I was dejected largely by your endorsement of voting in favour of independent candidates during the assembly elections. You strongly believe that voting in favour of independent candidates would have turned the tide in favour of our spirit of freedom and you vehemently stand by your comments about that. I wish to draw your kind attention to the fact that you made this appeal of voting in favour of independents for the first time in your post dated 28.11.2008 titled, "Stop Omar Abdullah" when two phases of elections were already finished and last date for nominations for another four phases had also surpassed. Last date for nomination for the last seventh phase of elections was about to culminate in another 48 hours when you made that appeal. So under no circumstances was it possible at that time to motivate and subsequently nominate pro-freedom candidates as independents. Therefore obviously you wanted all Kashmiris to vote in favour of those independents who were all pro-Indian characterless stooges, whose only motivation for contesting elections was either money or power. It is no secret that many political parties had offered 3-4 lakhs for each independent candidate in order to cut down upon the vote-bank of their opponents (a reason that independent candidate from Zadibal constituency, Mr. Tanveer Sadiq has subtly but candidly accepted (leaving aside the money part) upon being accused of the same by none other than you Mr. Koshur). Given this scenario, no sane person would ever have expected from these independent candidates to further the agenda of pro-freedom groups in the state assembly. It would be blissful ignorance and self-deceipt to expect such independents many of whom were surrendered militants to raise the slogans of freedom of Kashmir in the constituent assembly. I wonder then what made you swing in favour of independents. Since the last date of nomination of candidates was already over when you made this appeal there was no way we could field selected freedom-loving candiates at that time. Then why should anybody have voted in their favour at the huge cost of rendering legitimacy to the farcical electioneering process of India and demeaning the self-esteem of Kashmiri nation by indirectly accepting Indian occupation through voting. This one point haunted me the most and consequently I couldn't stop commeting on it. Rest of the points raised by you hardly need any clarification owing to their presumptive nature. None of the points are based on grounds of logic and genuine reasoning. If you wish I can very well elaborate how.......

I also do not see a point in furthering the argument so I think it will be wise to leave it at hatHowever, I am going to further explain my reasoning behind suggesting a vote for independents. I wont do it in one para; infact it is coming to be a document ten pages long. I have prepared it for Mirwaiz as a memorandum by a private Kashmiri citizen, and upon him receiving it first, will I make it public.Regards

Dear Koshure:You are sharely ploughing the sand. There is no point insisting upon voting in favour of independent candidates and writing volumes in support of this argument when the electioneering has already ended and there is no possibility of another election for the next six years unless present set up is pulled down by New Delhi. It would have been prudent though not much useful to my mind, to raise this demand much before separatist organizations appealed people to boycot the polls. What is the point in talking about this bygone issue at this juncture when new govt. is already in place.

Looks like you people absolutely hate India which is so wrong . You can't blame a whole nation for the wrong-doings of successive governments and your own politicians . Common people of India and i personally share your grief . Nobody shall have a problem as far as kashmir's independence is concerned but will it last especially when the taliban is making fast moves not so far away from Northern India ? . . . anything beyond facts is regretted since i am not an expert like you guys .

The conversation between Kashmir Crisis and Koshur is exactly what is going on between India and Pakistan and the readers as Kashmiris caught in the middle and depending who they support, others become traitors. Omar is considered a traitor, because he is pro-indian and that is one perception, but at the same time, supporting Pakistan will be a traitor, which is another perception. I understand Kashmir crisis's anger seeing the death of close kins by the security forces, for anyone will have the same anger and I deeply share my sympathy with those who died during all these years, but seeing the other side of who started creating this situation, it was Pakistan, who pumped in the so called freedom fighters in disguise in the name of Kashmiris and put all the blames on India, though any Army operations will have its bad affects, where they do not know whom to trust and whom not, when the whole people are looking at them with distrust. It is better to keep the Army in barracks always instead of bringing in to counter insurgents, whether it is Kashmiris themselves or Pakistanis. Even if we start rebellion in any other parts of the country, the same Army will come there as well, with no doubt and in Kashmir's case, this is made complicated by the involvement of Pakistan elements and also the religion factor combined together with the rise of extremism from Taliban. If you utter a word to a muslim in negative, it is termed as an attack on Islam. Islam is a noble religion, the name of which is spoilt by many narrow minded people, but there are many people with balanced and broad views keeping a balance, but the minority of others are spoling the name of religion.

Pakistan is holding a part of Kashmir and even donated some of the land to China and why we are not seeing any hue and cry on this. Even if Kashmir is allowed its self determination, what about these places and will they get the same rights and whether you all can guarantee that you will be able to get the same from Pakistan and china. no way. The equation is simple, Pakistan want to take vengeance on the creation of Bangladesh and with their lust on neighbour's wife (Kashmir) trying to lure Kashmiris in the name of religion and the common enemy is because it is a Hindu country, while the same country hosts all the major religions in the world, that too in big numbers. If hatred towards Indian government and hatred against Hindus is the driving force, then nothing can be done, no matter whatever others tell. I am sure, if intruders coming to Kashmir is stopped from Pakistan, the Army will return to barracks. If you can create and stand up to make that happen, half of your problem will be solved. As far as independence is concerned, every state in India is independent and maintain their own culture and language and have all the independence within the state and country. We love people of Kashmir as Indians and want each one of you are part of us. Pakistan will be looking for Kashmir as a land, but for India, even if a decision comes to keep the Kashmiris in India, without Kashmir as a place, India will accomodate our brethren like you, koshur, like how it welcomed all the civilisations who lived here and survived. This is written with an open mind as I and many fellow countrymen want to see Kashmir prosper and the people lead a peaceful life. I am curious to know one thing, why do you all hate Hindus as around 60% of Hindus are not at all religious by nature and see from human angle. Is it because of Pakistan TV's propaganda, Bombay riots, Gujarat riots, but then see the other side of the the story that there is no special privilege a Hindu or Christian or sikh gets over a muslim as all are equal. My life in India tells that and let me know your views on this to have an understanding. Also want to understand whether any discrimination is going which we are not aware from personal experience, but not based on others stories so that whatever a person can do can be done. Please bear in mind that BJP is not India and India is not BJP, but India is made up of people like you and me, though you may hate the name INDIA.

I agree with Koshur on the last point. Media of any country is credible only when they are highlighting the point between the people of their own country. But when they have to depict a story between a citizen of their own country as against one of another country, they obviously support their own citizen, no matter if he is guilty....Internet is a good way to discuss and know things as you can talk to a person who was protesting on the roads of kashmir only to show the pain and the anguish of loosing a family member because of two countries fighting for the land which belongs to none of them.

I totally understand the pain you all have been going through due to the situation there. All I can share is my brotherly love as my say is not going to change anything about the actual situations or who is right or wrong and also the perceptions of a paradise waiting on the other side of border. Wish you all the best, peace and good luck.

@ Anonymous....Thanks a lot for those kind words.As mentioned by Koshur in his comments that we have no harsh feelongs for the Indian people and you see the respect and hospitality when you visit Kashmir.I am reading a book on history of Kashmir these days by M.J Akbar. It seems kashmiris have always been the victim of the bad politics, right from reshis's to mughals to currect situation. we can only hope things get better.

@Ferozit is very true that Kashmiris have all along been a victim of bad governance which started right from the onset of the Mughal rule, then the pathans, siks, dogras, and now this...

In university I had to read "valley of Kashmir by walter lawrence and "Freedom movement in KAshmir" by M.Y. Khan. both are very informative.

@anonymousthanks for the kind words, but I have to mention that it would be wrong to assume that Kashmiris are fighting for independence because they are dreaming of joiing the "paradise" of pakistan across the border. A quick look at the right hand side of my blog will list all Kashmiri bloggers. If that is an indication of anything, it clearly shows that Kashmiris overwhelmingly wish to be independent of both India as well as Pakistan. With friendly relations with both countries. A bit more friendlier with Paksitan, because they havent killed 200,000 of my fellow countrymen and women.

I disagree with you on that point. I would rather have better relations with India than Pakistan. I have absolutely no feelings with the people of that country. It is because of those people that Kashmir has to bear the brunt.I have been living in different parts of Indian States for past 6 years and I blame Pakistan equally for the condition in Kashmir. I read things about Pakistan occupied kashmir ( as per them azad kashmir) and the pakis have always been biased with their part of kashmir. It would be worth mentioning when the British envoy to so called azad kashmir presented the report and she mentioned that the J&K is better off than Azad Kashmir. Also one of my acquitance has been to POK along the Loc last month and I knew him as a pro pakistani before going there, the day he returned from POK, he was aghast to explain the condition of POK.So I will better go with facts than the feeling of pak being a muslim country.I also don't deny that I want independence for Kashmir but with no harsh feelings against India. You cant blame common people of India for what is happening in Kashmir, it all goes to the politics and our politicians have never been better off.

@feroz you are right then we have to disagreeI have no issues with the general public of India - they are victims of misgovernance and exploitation. I respect them and have good regard for them.

Similarly, the population of Pakistan are noble people who have a good reagard for Kashmir. I am disappointed that you use the term "Pakis" but that just displays where your sympathies lie. You are entitled to your views. The people of Paksitan should not be held responsible for the actions of their dictatorial governments. Just like you use the same argument for the people of India - of which I share the same views.

However, unless the government of India officially apologizes for the deaths of 200,000 Kashmiris caused by their barbaric soldiers in Kashmir, our relations with them will always remain colder than what they will be with Pakistan.

I too have the same experience living in different states within India and I am narrating from that experience similar like you narrated. India,due to the very nature of a multi cultural society, love and hate relationship within different communities do come up, will continue to come up again due to different ideologies, with each state having its own language and slang, different festivals, but that is all part and parcel of a community living, but in general the education system instils unbiased attitude within us which most of us learnt, and exceptions are due to lack of education or upbringing. As you rightly mentioned, there have been situations where we ourselves want some power to change the entire politicians due to their self centered politics and my point is if somebody is responsible for a deed, he should be punished and not create panic by targeting innocent civilians, anywhere in the world. Even with the exploitation of the politicians, India has improved over the years from standard of living reducing people who are below poverty line, but slow in getting there due to these facts. Again most of the Indians, irrespective of religions respect other religions. I was in Bombay when the riots took place at the age of 21 and during the riots which all know as against targeting areas who were supporting Pakistan by bursting crackers when they win, me being a Hindu got attacked and got stabbed as well and who did it, I do not know and on what basis also, do not know, but lost my golden chain and money and believe was a victim of antisocial elements using the opportunity. This is another fact, but that did not make me hate Bombay, because of the good time I spent there coming from another state from far south. Now having living in Middle east in a country, do respect the customs and practices here and have many friends here as well. The experience all these years within India and living abroad taught that ultimately all are human beings and if you can do something good for somebody do it or else do not harm them. On Koshur's comments, Army operations, if it happens in another state, I bet the same turmoil will be seen in that state as well, but Kashmir people are caught between two hostile neighbours who are suspicious of each other, with religious color given to the conflict by Pakistan making it more of a tragedy. I personally feel, both POK and Kashmir should merge and leave it to the people of both the sides of Kashmir to decide, but will India leave its part or whether Pakistan will leave its part is the question and the very reason for all these bloodshed happening

I was born and brought up in Sopore. You may be well versed that how much people of Sopore have contributed to the ongoing struggle against the Indian army.As mentioned that I have absolutely no feelings for Pakistan, be it the people of PAK, or their useless politicians or the their army. I was born in the state of J&K and it happens to be part of India, so logically the country I am citizen of and why should I show sympathy to people of pakistan?? If they are supporting the sentiments of people of J&K then they shouldn't have gifted a part of our state to China as a good will gesture. As Anonymous has mentioned in his comments and with which I do agree, that if army is called on in any other state they will have the same response. Recently during Amarnath row, when army was called in Jammu, the people of Jammu also complained the same thing about armies brutality, I shouldn't forget the Gujjar incident in Rajasthan where the story was the same.It was up to the politicians which are our servants logically to address the greviances of the people of Kashmir. To our ill luck there hasn't been a good one to do so far.I think army is always better off on the borders. Recent steps my Omar Abdullah has been very encouraging and to some extent I can see that he has addressed the things in a well manner. I would not forget his words when he said to Times Now that elections are for governance and Hurriyat ( I don't give any credibility to them) is for the resolution. Omar also mentioned recently that he would like to make J&K police stronger so that the work army or crpf is entitled to will be given to them. I think will be a wellcome point.

How long can we be the vitims of bad politics??

@Anonymous:

I am really sorry to hear that you were a victim of the Bombay Riots.I fully agree with your post.But there is vast majority of People of India who don't think like you. Kashmiris are fed up with the dispute between two countries.Both India and Pakistan should find some solution to the dispute.We Kashmiris are so unlucky that we do hold an Indian passport but we have no feelings for India ( as in patrotism) and I dont think it is fair on the part of India to have people who dont consider the flag of India as their own. Also not fair on the part of Kashmiris that they have been divided in two parts and have been left with no option but be part of two different nations. Has India listened to the UN plebscite option in 1950 and had Pakistan shown some maturity Kashmir would have been in a better position and ultimately South_east Asia would have been stable and peaceful....

I totally agree with your views which speaks volumes about you, your exposure, your insight, experience even when caught in the middle of hostility, keeping an unbiased view, telling facts which is the right approach and more guys like you will surely help solve the issues of this tiny planet called earth where we all live

Please write to your local Members of Congress and Senators about Kashmir. Inform them that you are aware of crimes committed by Indian forces occupying Kashmir and that you would like the US to intervene. Please also take time to write to President Obama. His site is linked below.Click here to visit President Obama's site.

Learn Kashmiri

One day, inshallah, Kashmiri will be taught in our schools. Until then please visit the following site and learn to write Kashmiri and read and listen to some lyrics of Kashmiri musicClick here to visit the site